Forget The Galaxy S5 — Here's How To Monitor Your Heart Rate On Most Phones

I’m currently working on the TechnoBuffalo review of the Galaxy S5 and, as part
of it, I was recently testing out the S Health 3.0 heart rate
sensor. At first I was pretty impressed by the technology — it
seems relatively accurate and consistent.

Then I remembered an app I downloaded a year or more ago on my
iPhone that promised to let me do the same thing. I hadn’t ever
used it, but it stuck out to me at the time as one of the top
apps under health and fitness and I figured at the time I should
own it. The app is called Instant Heart Rate, and it works just as well
as the heart rate sensor on the Galaxy S5. Better yet, it’s
available on Android, too.

I took the Galaxy S5, the HTC One (M8) and my iPhone 5s and first
tested the heart rate sensors on myself. The Galaxy S5 told me my
heart rate was at 72 beats per minute, while the iPhone 5S and
HTC One (M8) with Instant Heart Rate said my rate was sitting at
73 beats per minute.

After several more tests that yielded similar results, I decided
to ask a few members of the staff to test themselves on the
iPhone 5S and the Galaxy S5. After three separate tests, I can
confirm that the Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 5s with the Instant
Heart Rate monitor provide nearly identical scores, if not
identical. To me, that tells me that Samsung is spending a lot of
money trying to differentiate its phone as a health monitoring
tool when, technically, you can already do the exact same on an
iPhone or most Android phones (I think the only requirement is a
flash with the camera).

I’m not a doctor, but the comparison tests tell me that the
Galaxy S5 is no better at monitoring a heart rate than phones
that are already on the market. Of course, without knowing to dig
into the health section of the app store you might not know these
options exist. If you were only planning to buy the Galaxy S5
because of its potential to help you monitor your health more
than other phones, you may want to reconsider that choice. We’ll
be bringing you our full review in the coming days.